Sleigh Ride

Many years ago in the Northern United states, a group of young boys, all students in the same school, decided to take a sleigh ride together on a sunny but cold winter day. It was a Sunday afternoon and they did not have much else to do that day. The sleigh was large enough for 20 boys. Six horses drew it. It was a common custom of the school to which they belonged, and on previous occasions, their teacher had accompanied them. This time, however, he was unable to be with them as he had some other important business engagement that had come up.

On the day after the sleigh ride as the teacher entered the school room, he found his students standing around the stove, happily chattering to each other about the fun of their excursion the day before. He stopped awhile and listened Then he asked the boys about their day. One of the boys, whose heart was in the right place though sometimes his love of sport led him astray, volunteered to tell the teacher about the trip. As he came to the end of the story, he exclaimed: –

“0, Sir, there was one little incident which I almost forgot to tell you! Toward the end of the afternoon, as we were corning home, we saw up al1ead of us, a strange looking sleigh on the road. At first we could not quite make out what it was. It seemed to be a sort of half-and-half monstrosity. As we approached it, it proved to be a rusty old sleigh fastened behind a covered wagon. It was moving very slowly and taking up the whole road. After following it for awhile we realized that he was not going to pull to the side and let us pass so we decided to make some snowballs and throw them at him to get him to pull over, and also for a good laugh. We threw them eagerly and it worked better than we expected. The crazy machine not only pulled to the side, but that skinny old horse was so scared it ran full speed right into the deep snow. As we were passing, someone from our sleigh used the whip on his horse that made him run even faster into the snow. And so with another volley of snowballs at him, we rushed on by. With that the old man in the wagon, dropped his reins and shouted, “Why do you frighten my horse?”

“Why didn’t you pullover then,” said our driver. “So we gave him three rousing cheers and were off. His horse was frightened again, and ran up against a loaded team, and I believe, almost knocked the poor man off; and so we left him.”

“Well, boys,” replied their teacher, “That is quite an incident. But take your seats; after our morning worship is ended, I will tell you another story about a sleigh ride.”

Having finished the reading of a chapter in the Bible, and a prayer, he began his story as follows:

“Yesterday afternoon a very good and respectable old man, a minister for the church, was on his way from Boston to Salem to spend the rest of the winter with his son. He decided to travel in the spring with his wagon, but in order to be prepared for deep snow; he fastened his sleigh behind his wagon. He was, as I have just told you, very old and quite sick. His face was thin, his hair white as he was 87 years old. His sight, and hearing also were fading due to his age, as yours will be when you reach his age.

“He was proceeding very slowly and quietly, for his horse was old and feeble, like his owner. He was thinking over his youth, when he had risked his life in preaching the gospel in heathen lands where missionaries were forbidden; to his later years when he was struggling daily to put food on his table. While he was deep in thought, he was suddenly. disturbed and even terrified by loud shouts from behind and by a furious pelting of snowballs and ice at his wagon. ill his sudden surprise he dropped his reins; and as his aged and feeble hands were quite numb from the cold, he found it impossible to gather them up, and his horse began to run away.

“In the midst of the old man’s troubles there rushed by him, with loud shouts, a large group of boys in a sleigh drawn by six horses.

“” Turn aside, old fellow!’ ‘Give us the road, old boy!’ ‘What’ll you take for your pony, old daddy? “‘Move it, frozen nose!’ ‘What’s the price of oats?’ were the various cries that met his ear.

” ‘Pray, do not frighten my horse,’ exclaimed the feeble driver.

” ‘Turn aside, then! Turn aside!’ was the answer, which was followed by repeated cracks and blows from the long whip of the grand sleigh, with showers of snowballs, and tremendous laughs from the boys.

“The terror of the old man and his horse was increased; and the horse ran away, to add to the danger of the man’s life. He was finally able, with some exertion, to take the reins again, which had been out of his hands during the whole ordeal, and to stop his horse just in time to prevent him crashing against another loaded wagon.

“As he approached Salem, he overtook a young man who was walking toward the same place, whom he invited to ride along with him. The young man made mention of the large sleigh of boys which had just passed and the old man asked him if he knew who the boys were. He replied that he did; and that they all belonged to one school, and were a set of wild fellows.

” ‘Aha! Exclaimed the old man, with a hearty laugh, for his constant good nature had not been disturbed, ‘they sure are wild indeed! Why, their master is very well known to me. I am going to his house, and I think I will relate to him this incident.’

.. A short distance brought the old man to his journey’s end, the home of his son. His old horse was comfortably housed and fed, and he himself provided for.

“That son, boys, is your teacher; and that aged and infirm old man, that ‘old fellow’ that ‘old boy,’ who did not move aside for you, but who would gladly have given you the whole road had he heard you approaching, that ‘old boy,’ that ‘old daddy,’ and ‘frozen nose,’ is an old retired minister in our church, your teacher’s father. He is now at my home, where he and I will gladly welcome any and all of you.”

As the professor, with no frown on his face, gave this version of the ride, it was clear from the expression of the boys’ faces, and the glances they exchanged, that they recognized the history of their doings the previous day; and it is not easy to describe nor imagine the effect produced by this new relation of their story. Some buried their heads behind their desk; some cried; some looked bewildered at one another; and many hurried down to the desk of the teacher, with many apologies and regrets.

“We did not know it was your father,” they said.

“My dear lads,” replied the teacher, “What does it matter whose father it was? It was probably somebody’s father, – an inoffensive traveler, an aged and feeble old man, entitled to kind treatment from you and everybody else. But never mind; he forgives it all, and so do I.”

Freely forgiven, the boys determined that they would be more civil in the future to inoffensive travelers, and more respectful to the aged and infirm people. And the years that followed showed that each one of them carefully kept to their word. They learned a valuable lesson from their mistake. Some day they all became old men, as you young people will also be old one day and think of the kind of respect you would want the young people to have towards you. Our elders have been through many trials and difficulties – they have gone through many battles against sin and darkness, while preacl1mg the gospel. They need our kindness and respect and we can learn much from taking the time to listen to them and heed their counsel.